Metro Start Menu For Windows 7 And Windows 8

Windows 8 includes Metro Start screen, Metro apps, and Metro Control Panel. Surely, it’s missing the good old Start menu, but there is a simple workaround to enable Start menu in Windows 8. Wouldn’t it be nice if Microsoft included Metro Start menu in Windows 8?

Well, if you are on Windows 7 or Windows 8 Developer Preview, you can now get Metro style Start menu with the help of mStart application. mStart is a small tool for Windows 7 and Windows 8, developed by Solo-Dev at DeviantArt gallery, to get Metro Start menu in Windows.

Other than listing all installed apps, it also displays program shortcuts on desktop and pinned items to taskbar. In simple words, this tool has the ability to show apps in multiple folders.

mStart works pretty well on both x86 and x64 versions of Windows, considering the fact that it’s still in early Beta stage. mStart also includes options to change Start menu background color, transparency level, icon style, and tile style. Options are available to align the Start menu to the left or right of the screen and to sort all apps in alphabetic order.

Key features of mStart:

# Metro Style Start menu

# Shows apps in multiple folders

# Allows you customize Start menu background color

# Allows you personalize Start menu transparency level

# Offers options to customize icon style and tile style

# Offers option to sort apps in alphabetic order

How to install and use mStart menu:

Step 1: Download mStart Beta zip file from here, and extract it to get Debug folder.

Step 2: Open Debug folder and run Textbar.exe file. Hover the mouse cursor on the Start button or orb and then do a left click on it to open mStart menu. If the mStart menu is not appearing and you can only see an arrow icon even after left-clicking, right-click on the arrow icon and select mStart settings. Reduce the transparency level to view the mStart menu.

We have tested it on Windows 7 (x86) and Windows 8 (x64) without any issues.